Gardening Club

Today we continued the task of clearing the allotment ready for the winter. The runner beans are still producing and we found a few more carrots today but that is about it. We got around to picking the sweetcorn today, it has been disappointing due to the poor weather and us being late in planting out, at least there are a number of happy rabbits and hens in Wigston tonight. We also divided out the onions among the garden clubbers. We hope to run gardening club up to half term and then we will have a break for the winter. Eco club are to take on the task of clearing out the pond and joining in the Big Tidy Up which has had to be rescheduled due to the closure of the school on the original date. More on that soon.

Photos from the allotment

Just a few photos to show you how things are going on the allotment:

Summer Update

OK its now over two whole weeks into the holidays and time to update you on how things are going. The allotment has been very productive since we broke up (next year we shall try to time things so they are ready two weeks earlier!). Watering is being carried out by a new automated system but its not as efficient as you lot! That said the greenhouse now has tomato plants that are full of tomatoes, Pepper plants with peppers, a cucumber plant with a cucumber and even the aubergines are flowering! Outside we have broad beans, runner beans, two types of dwarf french bean, lettuces, potatoes, carrots, courgettes, onions and peas. The herbs are also doing well and along the edge of the allotment the sunflowers are soon to flower. Back in the greenhouse the wildflower meadow plants we started in June are doing well and will be ready to transplant soon. The meadow we sowed in June is just starting to grow and the blackcurrent and blackberry bushes are now laden with fruit, I feel a fruit pick coming on for the first week back! Also coming up in September will be our contribution to the “Big Tidy Up”, organised by the Keep Britain Tidy campaign but more on this and our other plans for the new school year later.

Eco Club and Gardening Club

For the past two weeks in Eco Club we have been doing a bit of maintenance around the pond, clearing away some of the more invasive plants to allow for a greater variety of plants to grow. We have now made good progress with this work, just in time for the summer holidays.

Two weeks ago the new after school gardening group started, it is now full though those interested can still join a waiting list. Last Tuesday members of the group were able to take home some seedlings they had planted two weeks before and in future we hope to be taking home produce as well. Thanks to the hard work of Eco Club and Gardening Club the allotment looks really good now.

Vegetable Growing

We are continuing to make progress on the new allotment in our school grounds. We hope to make further progress before the summer holidays in the new gardening club that starts this week. Interested pupils will be able to learn how to grow their own veg and even take some of their produce home. As you can see the allotment has been transformed over the past few weeks due to the efforts of Eco Club and the ASDAN groups.

National School Grounds Week Starts

Today in Assembly next weeks theme of Stewardship: National School Grounds Week was introduced. Many thanks to the members of our Action Team who led the presentation to the whole school. Today in Eco Club we had to limit numbers to just 18. This was so we could get some progress on the allotment as well as do some much needed species spotting in our rapidly growing grounds. Those of you who came out to the allotment made huge progress as we planted the peas and more lettuces, finally got the onions in and did a whole load of jobs from weeding to watering. Those of you who went species spotting went looking for all the wildflowers and plants that now grow around the pond and attract a wide range of insects including damselflies and dragonflies. Two newts have also taken up residence in the pond, though they proved elusive today and could not be seen. Photos will follow….

Allotment Update

Things are moving on in the allotment as the manure has now been dug in. The first plants have been put out and are already doing well. Unfortunately today is too wet for Eco Club to carry on planting out so that will now wait until next week.

 

Special thanks must go to the ASDAN group who have made a herb planter and have now planted it out. It looks great!

Spring Update

Things have been so busy there has been little time to update this blog! Two weeks ago we went out to our new allotment and planted some seeds many of which are now sprouting. Last week we had a visit from our local MP Edward Garnier who came to formally present year 7 with their free OS maps and see our pupil voice activities, including the Eco Action Team. Thanks must go to Lily, Grace, Thomas and Charlie for their excellent presentation. Mr. Garnier said he would be keen to return in the future to see the progress we have made. On Tuesday The ASDAN award groups started their work on the allotment with one group building a raised herb bed and the other starting to dig in the manure to the beds. Tough work and oh I noticed they managed to tidy the shed as well!

It is now less than two weeks before we have our Eco Schools Green Flag inspection. We are all very excited and have begun to make preparations for the day.

We also have lots of new projects planned. The watering system for the allotment has now arrived and has been handed over to ICT as part of their studies into control systems. In year 9 a Design and Technology personalised learning module will design and build bird and bat boxes for the school grounds. We are also expecting the pond to be planted out any week now and have further plans to create our own wildflower meadow in the school grounds. In the Autmn we hope to create a small tree nursery working with the Earth Restoration Service but more on that later.

Allotment

With the completion of the shed and greenhouse (thanks to some hardworking members of staff!) over the Easter break the allotment is almost ready for action. With the weather turning more and more Spring like (if you ignore the forecast for snow this weekend) the timing couldn’t be better. Eco Club will start back on Friday with a gardening special, so bring your wellies. More photos can be found on the Big Green Grow pages.

Hedgerow by Pond

Today in Eco Club about fifteen of us went out to look at progress on the allotment. The edges of the beds are just being put in and next week will see topsoil being delivered and hard-standing and paths constructed. Having waited all this time its quite exciting seeing progress being made. We hope to have the allotment up and running soon after the Easter holidays.

We then went to dig up our hedgerow plants that came from the Woodland Trust two weeks ago. We had planted the plants in all together in their wrapper as we did not have time to plant them at first. Today we planted them as an 8 metre hedgerow along the edge of the pond. We look forward to the week after Easter when the pond itself is due to be planted out.

Allotment starts to grow

Our Bushloe Big Green Grow allotment project got under way today as construction on the fence began. Over the coming days we look forward to seeing the raised beds being constructed and the hard standing areas put in. You can check back here over the coming days for further updates and click on the Big Green Grow page to view the plan.